Dude, I tried really hard to get past Dillon's artwork, I swear I did. I just read Thunderbolts #1 and I was really disappointed, but by more than just Dillon's art, the story just felt flat. This is not a huge spoiler but, the story was basically General Ross' recruiting of the team. The scenes are a blend of action and conversation, its hard to describe why, but the whole thing was just weird. I would be interested to hear anyone else take on this issue.

Also, I looked up some of Dillon's previous work, and this just does not compare to it. He is obviously talented, but he must have been phoning it in the day he drew this stuff.

when you're Steve freakin' Dillon you get a pass when your works not as great as it can be, and I'll admit his work has gotten somewhat stagnant since the Preacher days but it's still Steve Dillon art drawn only the way he can, but the art is really more subjective, I can argue its merits till the cows come home but the thing I really want to defend is the story, we got an entire recruitment story in one issue, not only that but we also got the premise and tone of the book nailed down, how many other Marvel NOW! series have been trying to give us the same thing and haven't after two issues? and its got some serious characters who do bad things to bad people and as a team can easily decimate forces that they couldn't alone. It doesn't take itself too seriously as well. I found myself chuckling at Frank and Ross' back and forth, these are all characters who more or less work in the same line of work, violence and death is common to them so their attitudes reflect an almost jaded perspective on the matter, especially General Ross who seems disenchanted by what he's spent his life fighting for and seems to want to make up for his mistakes, that's powerful, interesting character depth, imagine what Way could do with that angle? or any of the other characters who are for lack of a better phrase are all "mad at the world". it's not going to be a fairytale or a superhero story where the bad guy gets hauled off to jail, its going to be a team of bad mother ****ers hunting down the worlds most evil people and sending them straight to hell, and that I was able to get all that from one issue is the mark of good writing, if you're still on the fence I'd urge you to at least give the next issue a shot before dropping it seeing as that'll be when the real story starts and the book should open up some (one more thing, I think Way has nailed his version of Frank Castle, which is difficult if not impossible to do well, the fact that he's working the angle of using his teammates for his own goals also suits the practical-minded nature of Frank)

also as far as Avengers goes I've never read any of Hickman's work and I'm very hesitant about adding new writers to my sort of mental list of writers I like, it'd probably have to be a book I came back to as the only way I really discover new writers is if the project interests me enough to jump in, so far Hickman hasn't done anything of note to me apart from his critically acclaimed work at marvel and Image and I've had bad experiences when it comes to critically acclaimed comics (can hardly stand the likes of Alan Moore for instance, arguably comics most praised writers)

Like I said, I researched some of him earlier work, specifically Preacher, and it is great. but the art in Thunderbolts seems too stiff. Now, to the story. Like you said, we got an entire recruitment story in one issue, but that is not necessarily a good thing. All new X-men took two issues to get us going on that, and I am glad they took that long. Thunderbolts felt rushed. So Ross had Punisher chained up (Um, what? how did he manage that?), I'll give him a pass on that because they might explain that in a future issue. Then they start in with these cut scenes of Ross recruiting, which are again rushed because pages are limited. The fact that these people all joined with relatively little motivation was weird. Obviously Punisher had a little extra motivation, but the whole time I was reading I was thinking "don't put baby in a corner" (yes that is a dirty dancing reference) I was pretty unimpressed. Also I wrote half of this while before a class, the other half right after, so if it doesnt make sense let me know....i dont proof read because I am an ass)

On Hickman, I really like him, I think that his comfort zone is sci-fi stuff. He does a great job of getting weird with characters but in a compelling way. I never read his fantastic four stuff (or did he write FF?) but I am not really a fan of that world. his book S.H.I.E.L.D. was crazy, like time is circular and davinci was a member of shield crazy.

I have a lot of mixed feelings for Thunderbolts, I think the writing is great, Dan Way is one of my favorites for his fantastic Deadpool run, speaking of which, I hope we get a good dose of Deadpools comedy like we did in Uncanny X-Force. I think the art could be a lot better, I looked at Dillon's preacher work and I actually liked, definitley a lot better than his Thunderbolts, you would think his art would improve, not degrade. I am definitley going to stick with this title, it has so much potential to be one of the best books in the Marvel Now line-up, if Dillon can step up his game and Way can keep up the good work and come up with some interesting stories then I think this could turn out to be a super great book.

As for Avengers, my pull-list is already full but it still looks like a cool comic, as does its seceret sister comic look like its going to be.

I just read Cable & X-Force I really liked it. I am writing a review now for Queso and my blog tomorrow. It is fairly vague because I dont want to give things away, not that there are any huge twists I am just sensitive about spoilers. I thought it was fantastic, and I had pretty high hope for it.